My intention is to consolidate all my movies and tv shows from my external hard drives into my itunes library with Metadata so that it can be accessed by all of my i devices.

I currently have a 27imac, my ipad, the daughters itouch, the wifes macbook and the soon to arrive TV2.

Ideally I would prefer to have everything in the MP4 format as this allows the syncing to my portable devices when Im travelling.

This is where the problem begins, I have a mixture of movie formats from 720p MKVs to AVIs with all of my tv shows in AVI ( I know AVIs are crap but when I acquired the files a while ago I was not as informed as I am today)

The MKV files are not a problem as I can remux to MP4 and retain the H.264 video and attach the metadata with iflicks or subler.

The AVIs on the other hand are a pain, I can go through the laborious task of encoding these to MP4 on handbrake but this takes a long time or I can use iflicks to convert to a format that will show up on my new TV2 and ipad through home sharing.

Im trying to find the best format in iflicks that will allow the file to be seen on the ipad through home sharing as the flatten to quicktime does not show up on the ipad.

Would the Ipad preset work for both TV2 and Ipad considering the resolution?

Any other suggestions to help me sort out this Dilemma

I currently have at my disposal iFlicks Subler MKVTools & Handbrake

Good lord, 15mins to convert a movie?? Even using my Elagato h.264 Turbo I never got them happening that fast. You sure?

I know my iMacs a bit long in the tooth at 5 years old (Last of the white iMacs), but I cant imagine the newest models ripping/converting so damn fast.

I use iFlicks (Flatten feature) but already have it converted to m4v before that using the like of HB or ReduxEncoder, depending on the source. Its not the new beta, but again, that cannot be the determining factor.

I have a 2010 2.8Ghz i7 quad core iMac and I can assure you that it only takes around 15 minutes for a 1.5+Gb .avi file to be converted to Tv2 preset 720p (mp4). I will load up a screenshot if you want?? I was originally going to down the HB route but it was taking to long so did some research and came across iFlicks, download the beta, it lasts for 70 days and well worth the money when the trial finishes. It has one or two minor bugs that the developer is working on a fix.

Does mean its time to upgrade for me. Mind you've I don't buy DVDs anymore, only Blurays, so the ripping time is understandably longer, but even then, sounds like the speed bump I'll get will be more then worth it.

Many or most AVIs can also be remuxed to MP4/M4V since many of them are encoded in XviD (or MPEG4 Part 2) which the iOS devices can generally play. If you just use the "iTunes Compatible" preset in iFlicks (beta) then it will remux and tag your files at the same time. There's often no need for any other program, though Subler does offer more "under-the-hood" controls.

When you use "iTunes compatible" on a .avi file it makes an equivalent .mov file that cannot be synced to your iPad, well that was my experience anyway so that's why I encoded them to mp4/m4v.
"iTunes compatible" keeps the file type therefore .avi does not natively play on the ipad.

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